THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: DIPLOMACY; Rumsfeld, in Baghdad, Presses the Iraqis On Insurgency and Writing Constitution

BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 27 - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld pressed Iraqi political leaders on Wednesday to settle their differences and agree on a new constitution quickly, and to exert more influence with Syria and Iran to force them to end support for the insurgency.

Speaking to reporters en route to an unannounced visit here, Mr. Rumsfeld laid out a blunt prescription for what Iraqi leaders must do in the coming weeks and months to ensure that a stable, secure and popularly elected government takes root, and to allow American troops to begin to withdraw.

His remarks amounted to perhaps the broadest attempt by a senior Bush administration official to prod Iraq's fractious mix of Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders to move forward on political, economic and security fronts. Previously, the White House followed a hands-off policy, emphasizing Iraqi sovereignty.

Delivered just two days after the new American ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, injected himself into the writing of the constitution, Mr. Rumsfeld's comments also underscored the administration's keen desire to maintain a political process that American officials say is essential to defeat the insurgency and to establish an Iraqi government with public support.

Although the administration has been pushing for a strong central government, Iraqi officials involved in drafting the constitution say the final document will call for a federal system, with a weak center and powerful regional councils. [Page A8.]

Mr. Rumsfeld declined to say when conditions would permit that drawdown to start. But the top American commander here, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., reaffirmed to reporters his own statement in March that the Pentagon could make "some fairly substantial reductions" in troops by next spring if the political process remained on track and Iraqi forces assumed more responsibility for securing the country.

After meeting with Mr. Rumsfeld, Iraq's prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said there was no firm timetable for an American withdrawal but he said Iraqis "desire speed in that regard." He said that as Iraqi forces improved, they would replace American troops around the country.

Security was just one of the broad themes that Mr. Rumsfeld outlined, first to reporters traveling with him and then to Mr. Jaafari and other top Iraqi officials, said a senior Pentagon aide, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting with the Iraqis was private.

First and foremost, Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters, was the need to stick to a political timetable that calls for Iraqi officials to write a constitution by Aug. 15. "We don't want any delays," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "They're simply going to have to make the compromises necessary and get on with it." He added, "That's what politics is about."

Any delay would be "very harmful to the momentum that's necessary," he said. "We have troops on the ground. People get killed."

Iraqis are scheduled to vote on a constitution by October and, if it is ratified, to elect a government by December. But the committee writing the constitution has been snarled by disagreements over regional autonomy and women's rights, as well as the threatened withdrawal of its Sunni Arab contingent after two members were fatally shot July 19 on a Baghdad street.

The chairman of the committee, Sheik Humam Hamoudi, has said repeatedly that the document will be delivered on time, and reiterated that promise in a news briefing today. A full, though not final, draft of the constitution was published Tuesday in a Baghdad newspaper.

Mr. Rumsfeld renewed his criticism of Syria and Iran for harboring the financiers and organizers of the insurgency, and for not clamping down on fighters entering Iraq from their territory. But he also urged Iraqi leaders to be more aggressive in halting what he called "harmful" behavior by Syria and Iran.

"They need to demonstrate that they're a big country, they're a wealthy country, that they'll be around a long time, and they don't really like it," Mr. Rumsfeld said, adding that he would leave specific actions up to the Iraqis.

He also called on the Iraqi government to assume greater responsibility over time for the 15,000 detainees in American custody in Iraq, to allocate enough money in future Iraqi budgets to field security forces capable of replacing many of the 22,000 foreign allied forces that plan to leave Iraq by Dec. 31 and to improve cooperation between the Iraqi Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry to enhance the combat readiness of Iraq's 170,000 military and paramilitary police forces.

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Mr. Rumsfeld also said that the United States would help Iraq secure reconstruction aid from international donors.

It was unclear how Mr. Jaafari, the prime minister, responded to each of Mr. Rumsfeld's half-dozen themes, but he seemed to share the secretary's sense of urgency. At a brief news conference with Mr. Rumsfeld, he outlined his thinking about the security forces and detainee operations but did not mention -- and was not asked about -- progress in drafting the constitution.

Earlier on Wednesday aboard a C-17 cargo plane from Tajikistan, Mr. Rumsfeld was asked whether his comments, which he ticked off from notes, suggested that the administration's efforts in Iraq were approaching the homestretch. "Oh, I wouldn't say that," he said. "I just have an obligation to look ahead."

As is his policy in public comments, Mr. Rumsfeld would not say when Iraq would be safe enough to allow American troops to withdraw. He said drawing down troops hinged on the size and strength of the insurgency, cooperation from Syria and Iran, the ability of the Iraqi security forces and Iraqi public support for the new government.

Mr. Rumsfeld spent Wednesday in a whirlwind, nine-hour visit here that included a town hall meeting with American troops in Balad, north of Baghdad, a strategy luncheon with top American commanders, briefings with Iraqi political leaders and a live-fire demonstration by an Iraqi counterterrorism unit.

It was Mr. Rumsfeld's 10th trip to Iraq since Saddam Hussein's government's fell in April 2003, and his 3rd this year.

Joining Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Khalilzad, the new United States ambassador, at a brief news conference, General Casey painted an upbeat picture of steadily improving Iraqi security forces pitted against an insurgency that he said was neither weakening nor gaining strength.

"I wouldn't say that it's necessarily a stalemate," General Casey said. "Insurgencies need to progress to survive, and this insurgency is not progressing. There's been a change in tactics, to more violent, more visible attacks against civilians. That's a no-win strategy for the insurgents."

Mr. Rumsfeld made his most detailed remarks aboard his plane en route to Iraq.

The United States is overseeing 15,000 detainees, a number that has climbed sharply in recent months as more insurgents have been are captured but a smaller percentage have been released, he said.

American forces run detention centers at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, Camp Bucca near Basra and Camp Cropper, a site near Baghdad International Airport for high-value detainees, including Mr. Hussein. But the prison population is growing so quickly that the United States will soon open a fourth major prison in northern Iraq, Mr. Rumsfeld said. The prison operations are requiring increasing numbers of American military police and prison guards, who are being diverted from other jobs in Iraq, he said.

Mr. Rumsfeld called on Iraq to provide more trainees "so that as soon as it is feasible, wecan transfer the responsibility for Iraqi prisoners to the Iraqi government."

In another indicator that Mr. Rumsfeld is looking to an evolving relationship with Iraq, he said American lawyers continue to work with their Iraqi counterparts on legal agreements covering American forces in Iraq once a new government takes control in January.

Mr. Jaafari said he had complained to General Casey about the recent deaths of Iraqi civilians at the hands of the American military, either in accidents or raids against insurgents. General Casey said the military was reviewing reported Iraqi civilian deaths in the last 60 days, had ordered refresher training for American troops to avoid civilian casualties and was considering broadening the compensation that the United States pays the families of Iraqi civilians killed as a result of American military operations.